December 30th, 2019

You know how some people say that when you've been in a relationship for a long time, there is no longer any "mystery"?  Have you ever heard that?  The premise is that when two people have been together for awhile, they know everything there is to know about each other.  And from there are two camps:  One is liking the comfort zone of being that familiar with another person and the other is feeling bored by no more surprises.

First of all, I do not believe that it's possible to know EVERYTHING about another person.  You might know a lot. You might know them better than most people.  But I do not believe that anyone knows everything about someone else.  Heck, I'm still learning things about me. Seriously, I surprise myself on a regular basis.

I will admit to liking a comfort zone of dependability.  Knowing that Tim is a person I can always count upon, no matter what brings me great joy and a wonderful feeling of security. .  But I also enjoy the occasional surprise and Tim never lets me down there either. He loves to surprise me and often does.  But recently I was surprised by him an entirely different way.

Up until recently, if you had asked me what Tim's favourite cake was, I would have said with supreme confidence and no hesitation whatsoever, "Chocolate!"  Whenever I make a chocolate cake he is one happy guy.  And too, if we happen to order a dessert in a restaurant, it's not unusual for him to request the chocolate cake.  Seems like a reasonable assumption on my part right? I mean it's not as if we each filled out a questionnaire on each other at any point and then committed the responses to memory. Yeesh.  

It turns out that if you had asked me that question and I had given that answer I would have been wrong.

I was more than a little gobsmacked when, during a conversation with other people the subject came up.  And when asked what his favourite cake flavour was his answer was NOT chocolate, it was carrot cake.     Say what?    

An aside here:  I do not have a poker face.  Whatever I am feeling I am showing on my face.  I might manage to not say what I'm thinking out loud, but if you have any degree of perception and understanding in interpreting facial expression and body language, my feelings are not a mystery.  So I am quite certain than everyone present was amused by my surprise.

So there you go. After all these years of marriage I learned something new.  Carrot Cake eh?  Okay then.  I decided that I was going to make a carrot cake for Tim for our Anniversary.   Poor man.  Twenty-six years together and never once have I made a carrot cake for him. In fact, I had never before made a carrot cake.

Why?  I dunno.  Just somehow, I never did.  I've made white cakes, yellow cakes, apple cakes, banana cakes, blueberry cakes, angel food cakes, coffee cakes and lord knows how many Chocolate cakes, but never once a carrot cake. 

Well, actually carrot cake as an anniversary treat didn't happen because we were travelling the two days before and I had to work the day of, but the following day, Carrot Cake happened.   Since this was brand new to me,of course, I did some reading.

I think I read through at least a dozen different recipes to get the general idea, made up my grocery list and off I went.  I actually decided to make carrot cake as cupcakes because I kind of like the idea of the single serving thing. And cupcakes are inherently adorable.

I assembled all of my ingredients, I had several cookbooks open and at the ready, my cupcake tins were ready, the oven was pre-heated and I could not find my grater.  I searched every cupboard, every shelf, every corner of the pantry and nothing.  Then I remembered that the last time I used it, it broke.  Just old age I reckon.  Dang. And I never replaced it. Double Dang.

I ended up using a cheese grater.  Any idea how long it took me to grate 3 cups of carrots with a cheese grater?  The better part of a half hour of constant grating, switching hands when one got tired and continuing on to the end.  What a PIA!  But eventually the carrots got grated dammit!  Taadaa!  I don't blink at obstacles.  They might slow me down but they never stop me from my goal!

Anyway, batter got made, the cupcakes got baked and once they cooled I made a cream cheese frosting of course.  

I presented one to Tim with great flourish and he really enjoyed it.  

But then we were up to our earlobes in cupcakes!  I don't know about you but I sure as heck do not need to eat that many cupcakes!  So I texted my neighbor, 'Would you be interested in some Carrot Cake cupcakes?"  Instead of texting back, she showed up a few minutes later at my door with a dish for cupcakes :) LOL

I guess Tim isn't the only person who likes them.  YAY!

Personally, as it turns out,  I am not a fan of them.  Nope.  I didn't eat a single solitary one.  But I did freeze what was left in little batches of four. Carefully wrapped and then zippybagged and now in the freezer.

I am not the only person this sort of thing happens to by the way.  I remember my mother telling me one day, shortly after my parent's 50th anniversary that she had just learned that my father didn't like...some vegetable, I don't recall which one. And she felt terrible because she had been serving it to him for 50 years.  He never once complained, never said he didn't like it, just ate it and stayed quiet until 50 years down the line when, presumably, he just couldn't tolerate it one more time.   Too funny.

The things we learn.  About ourselves.  About each other.  I wonder what other surprises Tim has in store for me?